The present invention relates to a universal advertising and payment system and method for networking, monitoring, collecting data, selling goods and services, controlling interactive advertising, controlling and effectuating electronic commerce and controlling vending equipment. The present invention also relates to physical and virtual networking of vending machines and network hardware, server based network control, and network security. The present invention can be implemented in a manner to allow operational monitoring and control of networks (and network hardware), vending machines, electronic commerce, payment for goods and services, delivery of goods and services, and advertising worldwide.
The growth of the Internet has created a new way to buy, sell, trade, and barter goods and services worldwide. This new form of buying, selling, trading, and bartering may commonly be referred to as electronic commerce or e-commerce. The process of conducting these types of transactions can be called an electronic commerce transaction, or e-commerce transaction.
As more individuals and businesses gain access to and or develop a presence on the Internet more goods and services can be made available and offered to buy, sell, trade, and or barter. Resultant from rapid growth trends in Internet usage, e-commerce transaction trends may also be increasing.
Prior to recent Internet and e-commerce transaction trends many companies might have been able to manage order taking, and order fulfillment effectively. Traditional sales departments, and order fulfillment departments might have been able to expand equally in harmony with new customer generation and increased business sales volume. A factor in expanding equally and managing balanced growth of a company may have been the fact that until the introduction of the Internet traditional advertising means (print, radio, television, etc.) reached limited selected marketplaces. Reaching selected marketplaces in a controlled approach could allow a company to tailor ramping up for increased order processing and order fulfillment.
The dynamics of the Internet can be that a company with an Internet presence, ready or not, can have a worldwide presence overnight to millions of potential customers and shortly thereafter be inundated with orders, customer service issues, merchandise returns, and order fulfillment requirements.
In general, the Internet can offer exposure to many millions of potential customers worldwide simultaneously. The result can be receipt of more orders requiring processing and fulfilling then a company can reasonably handle. This can result in poor performance on the part of the order recipient to timely meet customer needs. In many cases this could cause alienation and ultimate loss of a valued or potential customer.
As individuals become more reliant on the Internet for e-commerce and electronic mail (e-mail) the demand for access to the Internet may increase. In addition, to the buying, selling, trading, and bartering supported on the Internet other services vital to daily business may also be performed online.
For example, Internet banking, stock and security trading, and e-mail communication may also be a growing functional need of the Internet. Unfortunately only individuals with access to computers that in-and-of-themselves have Internet connectivity can access and use these services. In large part this may limit the access to Internet services since many potential users may not have access to the Internet, yet others might only have access to an Internet capable computer at home or at a place of employment. Even if a computer with Internet access is available the opportunity to surf through tens of thousands of Internet web sites may require more time than is available or may be an inappropriate use of time (as may be common in the workplace environment).
Additionally, a computer with Internet access may be too foreboding in time and or skill required from a potential customer in finding the appropriate web site, identifying the goods or services desired, and ultimately conducting an e-commerce transaction. Furthermore, the potential lack of security of sensitive credit card and transaction information, and other sensitive data may be a real threat in discouraging potential customers from performing e-commerce transactions. Thus a potential customer may become scared, and or frustrated choosing not to partake in the e-commerce transactions all together.
There are numerous problems for Internet based businesses (referred to as virtual companies or virtual businesses) in that increased competition on the Internet may see their dominance in a particular market space and or ability to grow their business diminish. The barrier to entry of a virtual company can be little more than a computer hooked to the Internet, allowing competition to pop-up overnight. As more web sites appear selling similar products, a virtual company""s ability to differentiate itself from other virtual companies may diminish. Head-to-head competition may shrink profit margins, potentially jeopardize an entire business enterprise. In addition, web based business may struggle to uniquely identify themselvesxe2x80x94after all most if not all virtual companies exist on web pages, and web pages only.
In addition to virtual companies having to compete with other virtual companies, virtual companies have to compete with brick and mortar type companies. Brick and mortar type companies may be referred to as physical companies. Physical companies are companies with physical locations that the public can access.
Physical companies may have several advantages over virtual companies. For example, in many cases physical companies can see their competition coming after them by monitoring and counting the competitions physical locations. Furthermore, it is much easier for a company with physical locations to expand by developing an Internet business, then it is for a virtual company to expand by buying or building physical locations.
A number of deficiencies support the long felt need of the present invention including the inability of many companies to meet the demands of e-commerce transaction processing and fulfillment. In addition, the demands and requirements required to timely process both traditional customer related transactions and the wide variety of e-commerce type transactions can result in customer dissatisfaction, lost orders, sales and or customer to name a few.
Deficiencies and shortcomings resulting from limited access to computers that have Internet access or connectivity may restrict access to virtual companies. In addition, the lack of Internet access available to everyone prevents a large contingent of potential customers from conducting business and e-commerce transactions with virtual companies.
Deficiencies and shortcomings of virtual companies include a lack of ways to differentiate themselves among competing rival virtual companies as well as brick and mortar type physical companies. In addition, the inability of the virtual companies to generate physical point of presence in the public may make virtual companies susceptible to competition from physical companies that decide to diversify by developing a competing virtual business.
The present invention is embodied in a simple and effective system and method for a universal control and payment system to distribute and display interactive advertising, conduct electronic commerce, and control the billing for the use of vending equipment. Vending equipment can include copiers, phones (public, private, cellular), facsimile machines, printers, data-ports, laptop print stations, notebook computers, palmtop computers (PALM PILOT), microfiche devices, projectors, scanners, cameras, modems, communication access, personal data assistants (PDA""s), pagers, and other types of vending machines, personal computers (PC), PC terminals (NET PC), and network computers (NC).
One aspect of the present invention provides a system for public access to electronic commerce. More specifically, the present invention can control, monitor, and effectuate electronic commerce transactions such that the general public can use the present invention as a public access electronic commerce station.
Another aspect of the present invention provides the ability to route credit card and other types of transactions, allowing credit card and other types of transactions to be processed in an online environment.
It is understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, but are not restrictive of the invention.